[Doebuster]

Grape vines are very tough ! Every deer in the farm comes to this scrape , smokys and evercalm !

 

[25ft-up]

This is an interesting observation.....that bucks prefer a species of tree to rub....as I have not found that to be so. We live on 10 acres that was the corner of a farm and is quite open, with crop fields adjoining. There are two trees on our NW corner.....a maple and a beech. Both have been hammered by rubbing bucks and I've set a trail cam on that spot the past three years. Typically in the dark of night, a buck will appear and rub on both....small, medium and large bucks will hit both. It is a surprise to me that they have survived this long and reemerge from winter hibernation each spring with the damage to the bark.

Last fall I was hunting a local municipal area that is broken up into zones to spread out hunting pressure. Since it was a new area, I had a couple trail cams out and also still/ground hunted a lot rather than hauling in a stand for observation. In-season scouting revealed a number of fresh rubs, with many occuring in thickets of small "slashings".....young trees were several were trashed.....or one bigger tree among them.

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Not all are picky on what they rub on or may also rub on other trees, but I've hunted many that were prone to hitting certain trees or rubbing a certain way . All were bigger bucks and/or the dominant buck in the area. Some chose cedar, or pine, others hit certain types of bushes. One was hitting all the small sassafras saplings the size of a finger. That was this one below...came close to getting him 2 years in a row. Last year the sassafras weren't rubbed and he never showed up.

One of my P&Y I hunted for on one side of a mountain until I saw the same type rubs(4-5 saplings growing together, all hit) along with fresh scrapes on the other side of the mountain later in the season.

Or I'll find only one spot where a certain type tree is growing that gets rubbed to no end, then no other rubs in the area unless I find the same type tree someplace else

Others keep hitting the same cedars year after year and nothing else.

I seen where a buck was making scrapes along a farm field and followed those same type rubs by the scrapes for a half mile until I seen my first P&Y antlers sticking up in a hedgerow with the sun reflecting off them. Tried to call him out a few nights during the week with no luck, then noticed an overgrown hill another 1/4 mile away had the same type rubs and called him in from there on Saturday morning.

 

[Alaska at heart]

Good stuff, my friend. What AT is supposed to be about....sharing and offering insights that add pieces to the greater puzzle of bowhunting. Nice buck there.....think he met his end?

 

[25ft-up]

Good stuff, my friend. What AT is supposed to be about....sharing and offering insights that add pieces to the greater puzzle of bowhunting. Nice buck there.....think he met his end?

I agree with you. Love to talk hunting or I wouldn't be here.
Don't know how he met his end, but I had a pic of him toward the end of the winter bow season after he shed one side. Area doesn't open until November for 8 days of muzzleloader only, then it's closed again until January for bow only, so if he was shot it was probably during fall bow outside the area since he would have rubbed before the Nov muzzy season. Or he was poached. I did get another 8 there with muzzy last year. That was all I saw. Seen it many times before how the activity drops way off when the dominant buck(s) are taken out. They draw in the doe which draw in lesser bucks. Had 3-4 other decent bucks on camera when he was around and about 8 other smaller bucks. Nothing but a couple doe so far this year. Scouting other areas now to see if they're making a comeback where the activity had died off in the past in the same way. Hunting public land is forever changing.